The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship

Contrary to predictions that it would become increasingly redundant in a globalizing world, citizenship is back with a vengeance. The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship brings together leading experts in law, philosophy, political science, economics, sociology, and geography to provide a multidisciplinary, comparative discussion of different dimensions of citizenship: as legal status and political membership; as rights and obligations; as identity and belonging; as civic virtues and practices of engagement; and as a discourse of political and social equality or responsibility for a common good.

The contributors engage with some of the oldest normative and substantive quandaries in the literature, dilemmas that have renewed salience in today's political climate. As well as setting an agenda for future theoretical and empirical explorations, this Handbook explores the state of citizenship today in an accessible and engaging manner that will appeal to a wide academic and non-academic audience. Chapters highlight variations in citizenship regimes practiced in different countries, from immigrant states to 'non-western' contexts, from settler societies to newly independent states, attentive to both migrants and those who never cross an international border. Topics include the 'selling' of citizenship, multilevel citizenship, in-between statuses, citizenship laws, post-colonial citizenship, the impact of technological change on citizenship, and other cutting-edge issues.

This Handbook is the major reference work for those engaged with citizenship from a legal, political, and cultural perspective. Written by the most knowledgeable senior and emerging scholars in their fields, this comprehensive volume offers state-of-the-art analyses of the main challenges and prospects of citizenship in today's world of increased migration and globalization. Special emphasis is put on the question of whether inclusive and egalitarian citizenship can provide political legitimacy in a turbulent world of exploding social inequality and resurgent populism.

Ayelet Shachar, Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Toronto,Rainer Baubock, Professor of Social and Political Theory, European University Institute,Irene Bloemraad, Thomas Garden Barnes Chair of Canadian Studies, University of California, Berkeley,Maarten Vink, Chair in Political Science, Maastricht University

Ayelet Shachar is Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and Professor of Law and Political Science, University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Before joining the Max Planck Society, she held the Canada Research Chair in Citizenship and Multiculturalism at the University of Toronto Faculty Law, and was also the Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor in Human Rights at Stanford Law School and the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC).

Rainer Baubock holds a chair in social and political theory at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute. In 2003-2005, he was President of the Austrian Association of Political Science.


Irene Bloemraad is Professor of Sociology and the Thomas Garden Barnes Chair of Canadian Studies at Berkeley. She is also a Senior Fellow with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and served in 2014-15 as a member of the US National Academies of Sciences committee reporting on the integration of immigrants into American society.


Maarten Vink holds the Chair of Political Science with a focus on Political Sociology at Maastricht University, the Netherlands. He is Co-Director of the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) where he currently leads the research project 'Migrant Life Course and Legal Status Transition (MiLifeStatus)' funded by a Consolidator Grant of the European Research Council (2016-2021).